e of real literature; for it is the
direct expression of the civilization that gave it birth--a civilization
that we must understand if we are to appreciate the characteristics of
its more important descendants of our own time.

Although the contents of these poems can be satisfactorily studied in any
translation, the effect of the peculiar meter that reinforces the
stirring spirit of Old English poetry is lost unless an attempt is made
to reproduce this metrical form in the modern English rendering. The
possibility of retaining the original meter in an adequate translation
was formerly the subject of much debate, but since Professor Gummere's
excellent version of _Beowulf_ and the minor epic poems,[footnote: _The
Oldest English Epic_, New York, 1909.] and other recent successful
translations of poems in the Old English meter, there can be no question
of the possibility of putting Anglo-Saxon poems into readable English
verse that reproduces in large measure the effect of the original. To do
this for the principal Old English poems, with the exception of
_Beowulf_, is the purpose of the present volume.

Except for the subtlest distinctions between the types of half verse,
strict Old English rules for the alliterative meter have been adhered to.
These rules may be stated as follows:

1. The lines are divided into two half-lines, the division being
indicated by a space in the middle.

2. The half-lines consist of two accented and a varying number of
unaccented syllables. Each half-line contains at least four syllables.
Occasional half-lines are lengthened to three accented syllables,
possibly for the purpose of producing an effect of solemnity.

3. The two half-lines are bound together by beginning-rime or
alliteration; _i.e._, an agreement in sound between the beginning letters
of any accented syllables in the line. For example, in the line

_G_uthhere there _g_ave me a _g_oodly jewel

the _g_'s form the alliteration. The third accent sets the alliteration
for the line and is known as the "rime-giver." With it agree the first
and the second accent, or either of them. The fourth accent must not,
however, agree with the rime-giver. Occasionally the first and third
accents will alliterate together and the second and fourth, as,

The _w_eary in _h_eart against _W_yrd has no _h_elp;

or the first and fourth may have the alliteration on one letter, while
the second and third have it on another,